A committee of the Temple Public Safety Advisory Board has decided a strong neighborhood watch program is the best way to reduce criminal mischief in the city.

Wanton smashing of car windows and knocking over mailboxes are two examples of criminal mischief. Temple police responded to 638 criminal mischief calls in 2002 and 787 in 2003.

A rash of these crimes at the end of 2002 spurred the board to form a criminal mischief mitigation committee.